Lucky Luciano
'Charles "Lucky" Luciano '(played by Vincent Piazza) is an ambitious and up-and-coming Italian-American bootlegger and gangster. He is based on the historical figure of the same name. Biography Lucky is a young, ambitious gangster on the rise with his sights set on the big-time. He relies mainly on his own ruthless cunning, and is not only smart but opportunistic. Season 1 fIn January 1920, Charlie Luciano accompanies his mentor Arnold Rothstein to Atlantic City to a meeting with Nucky Thompson set up by Johnny Torrio to discuss the upcoming alcohol business. The meeting starts out fine with all the gentlemen having a good time but is soon turns in to more of a tense business meeting when Luciano harshly asks Nucky to supply them with a huge amount of alcohol. Nucky, a fan of conversations, chastises Luciano for his approach. Luciano then leaves the table in embarrassment and lets his mentor Rothstein discuss the business, which he does successfully for a shipment of alcohol. Nucky and Luciano clash with each other again the following day when Rothstein wins a good amount of money at Nucky's casino and because of it is cut off by Nucky. Luciano and Rothstein then leave Atlantic City for New York to await their shipment from Nucky. However, Jimmy Darmody and Al Capone, Nucky's and Torrio's respective protegés, go behind Nucky's back and hijack the shipment meant for them, murdering all of their men in the process, including a relative of Rothstein's sister in-law. When the news of the hijacking reaches Rothstein, he has Luciano fetch Frankie Yale whom he has learned just returned from Chicago. Luciano brings him to Rothstein and he shakes him down for information about the murdering of Colosimo in Chicago as well as where the the alcohol he bought was sold. It turns out that Yale was brought in by Torrio to murder his boss in order to enter the alcohol business and that his alcohol was sold to Chicago, Rothstein concludes that Nucky was behind the hijacking. Rothstein proceeds by gathering more information and learns that one of the shooters was a James Darmody from Atlantic City. He summons Luciano to meet with him during a poker game and orders him to find James Darmody, question him about the other shooter and then murder both of them. Jimmy has however taken exile in Chicago. Luciano takes on the mission from Rothstein and travels to Atlantic City to find Jimmy. He pays a visit to his wife's, Angela Darmody's apartment, but there he instead finds (unknown at the time to Luciano) Jimmy's mother, Gillian Darmody. Luciano tells her that he is looking for James and that he's a friend of his. Gillian, knowing that her son's friends calls him "Jimmy", questions who Luciano really is. Luciano then tries to press Gillian about the whereabouts of Jimmy but instead of caving, insults Luciano and closes the door on him. Luciano, obviously intrigued by Gillian's manners starts to follow her around and ends up going to one of her burlesque performances at the Café Beaux-Arts. After the show he waits outside of the café for her. Gillian confronts him and they agree to see each other after her last show. A couple of weeks later, it's established that Luciano has begun a sexual relationship with Gillian. During one of their encounters, Luciano receives a phone call from Rothstein who's back in New York waiting for a report on Luciano's progress in his hunt for Jimmy. Luciano explains to Rothstein that he can't speak to that at the present moment since he's with Jimmy's wife, Rothstein then goes on enlightening him that he's wrong and that who he really is keeping company with is Jimmy's mother. Nucky suspects that Luciano could be behind a resent robbery off on of his alderman, Eli Thompson, therefore brings him in for questioning. During the questioning Luciano becomes enraged when Nucky presses him about the event, and also makes it clear to him that he has to treat Gillian in a respectable manner after Luciano makes a brash comment about her. They subsequently release him and also tell him that he should tell the "guineas" he came to Atlantic City with to lay off Nucky's operation and to tell Rothstein the same. Before he leaves, Luciano truthfully states that he has no idea of this robbery. The following month, Luciano along with his friend Meyer Lansky visits Atlantic City again to pay a visit to the D'Alessio brothers, whom Luciano has figured out must be the ones behind the robbery of Nucky's Alderman. They visit them in a speakeasy where they are playing cards along with Mickey Doyle. Luciano goes on by asking them how many times they think they can rob Nucky's bagmen and Pius confirms that it was them who did it and Matteo explains that it was done in order to get some money to start an alcohol operation. Lansky and Luciano then proceed by explaining that to run a successful operation they'll need more money than what they got. Leo proceeds by asking them if Rothstein is willing to back them and Luciano confirms he is, if they show him they're capable. Their task is to rob Lolly Steinman's casino, which would give them enough money to get started. After the casino heist is accomplished, the D'Alessio brothers are called to a meeting with Luciano, Rothstein and Lansky in New York. During the meeting Rothstein declares that he is going to start an import operation with whiskey arriving from Europe and that the brothers' job will be to smuggle the alcohol ashore when it's offloaded outside the three mile limit. They also agree to murder Nucky on orders from Rothstein. Luciano's task of murdering Jimmy hasn't progressed in the following months, but he is still seeing his mother. However, Jimmy has returned home from his exile in Chicago, Gillian therefore calls her son and tells him that Luciano is there, setting him up. Jimmy arrives and surprises Luciano and tells him that his friend Al Capone in Chicago has asked him to kill him, furthermore explaining that he'll take him somewhere that no one will ever find him. Jimmy takes Luciano down the stairs from the room and Luciano begins to tell Jimmy about his and Rothstein's involvement with the D'Alessio brothers and that they could cut them out and include Nucky in the deal instead. When they arrive at the entrance they are stopped by Nelson Van Alden and Eric Sebso who arrest Jimmy for his involvement in the Hammonton hijacking in January, they also search Luciano, however since he's unarmed they release him. Next month, after the the D'Alessio brothers' botched attempt on Nucky's life, They visit Luciano, Rothstein and Lansky again in New York to explain themselves. They are chastised by the three men for being incompetent. The brothers blames bad information for their failed attempt and promise that they will succeed the next time. After a betrayal by Mickey Doyle, Nucky Thompson hatches a plan to catch Luciano, Lansky and the D'Alessio brothers with the help of Chalky White. The plan is however bungled when Chalky realizes that the brothers are the people behind the murdering of his driver earlier in the year and decides to capture Lansky and two of the brothers instead of waiting for the others to show up. The war between Rothstein and Nucky reaches a stalemate with the D'Alessio brothers in hiding and Nucky unable to get Luciano because of their bungled attempt to capture them. Rothstein having a indictment looming over him, he arranges for himself to flee the country. But before doing so, Luciano and Lansky gives him an advice to with the help of Torrio, try and broker a deal with Nucky and with his political connections quash his indictment. Rothstein is reluctant to take advice from his underlings but in the end takes their advice and a meeting is arranged. The meeting goes well and Nucky agrees to Rothstein's demands and in return wants $1,000,000 in cash as well as the location of the remaining D'Alessio brothers, which Luciano gives the location off. At the end of the year, Luciano and Lansky is seen making a deal for an alcohol shipment, but later shoots the bootlegger down, stealing the shipment. Season 2 Charlie Luciano is in February 1921 by Arnold Rothstein's side when he is visited by Jimmy Darmody, who is in town to discuss a proposition with Rothstein about selling him alcohol. Rothstein compliments Jimmy for his well behavior but also makes subtle remarks about him being a child and ends up turning his offer down. Luciano however, while following Jimmy out, asks him to attend a meeting with him and Meyer Lansky over at their card game. The meeting is called because Luciano and Lansky believe that they could help each other out by buying liquor from Darmody and in return that he buys heroin from them, an enterprise they are just settling in to. The meeting does not start out to well as Jimmy starts off by insulting Luciano and Lansky for merely being underlings to Rothstein and that he isn't interested in doing business, just their boss, this in turn causes Luciano to make provocative comments about his and Jimmy's mother's relationship, which almost leads to a scrap between the two men. Lansky however soon settles everyone down. A deal is however not made and Jimmy, still angry at Luciano for the comments about his mother, murders two of Masseria's men whom he sees trying to extort money from the card game, hoping that this will cause problems for Luciano and Lansky. After this incident, they are both called upon by Rothstein to a sit down with Masseria. At the meeting it is explained to them that two of Masseria's men have been killed, unknown to them off course and they in vain try to explain that it must be a coincidence. Masseria however doesn't buy it and at the same time insists that their card game is in his territory, indicating that he wants a cut of the profit. Rothstein understands this and without consulting them, offers Masseria a one time fee to the dead men's families as well as giving 10% of the card game to him going forward, much to their discontent. While Nucky Thompson is having problems with his liquor importation in Atlantic City, Luciano and Lansky is visited by Rothstein whom goes on explaining to them that he has cut a deal with Nucky to import his liquor from Philadelphia with the help of Waxey Gordon, but that the route to Atlantic City will be his responsibility and would Like Luciano and Lansky to handle it for him. They initially argue but Rothstein makes it clear to them that they have to since Masseria still wants them dead, furthermore explaining that sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do. , Waxey Gordon, Herman Kaufman, Bill McCoy and Owen Slater.]] A meeting is called for everyone involved in Nucky's new import operation, where all necessary information about it is revealed. It is explained in the meeting that Gordon's men will escort the trucks to the border of Atlantic City where Luciano and Lansky's responsibility begins. Luciano begins to quarrel with Gordon and his man Herman Kaufman that they should be escorted all the way considering their payment, Lansky however soon silence him and they proceed as planned. During their first shipment complications arise when Jimmy, Richard Harrow and Manny Horwitz has gotten wind of the shipments and tries to hijack it. Luciano however gets the attention of Jimmy and the shooting stops. Realizing that they have an opportunity to instead of murdering each other over a shipment of liquor, they could partner up like they have spoken about doing before. Jimmy and his fellow hijackers therefore lets the shipment go to Atlantic City to not raise suspicion from Nucky and Rothstein. As planned, Jimmy assembles a group of young and ambitious bootleggers in his father's mansion to discuss how they are going to proceed with taking over the liquor business in Atlantic City. During the meeting they also begin to discuss why instead of waiting for him to go to jail, they just don't have Nucky murdered. Jimmy is at first skeptical but later agrees gives the order to have him killed when Al Capone, Lansky, Luciano and Nucky's own brother Eli all agree that it should be done. The attempt however doesn't go as planned and Nucky survives. Rothstein, unaware of Luciano and Lansky's business in Atlantic City, summons both of them to ask if they know what's going on in Atlantic City, they go on explain to him that the murder attempt on Nucky was the result of a feud between him and his brother and that they are still waiting for shipments from Bill McCoy. While in Atlantic City, Luciano also begins to meet with Jimmy's mother Gillian Darmody again. After the attempt on his life, Nucky steps down as ruler of Atlantic City. This leaves Atlantic City wide open for the young bootleggers and they proceed with their plans to be the sole importers in town. To accomplish this they have Al Capone bring in George Remus from Cincinnati to supply them with the alcohol they need. They strike a deal with Remus for 5000 cases of whiskey which themselves hijack, Luciano at the same time also tries to get Jimmy to sell heroin in Atlantic City. Their operation however doesn't go as planned since Nucky's move by stepping down was really just a pretend to give him time to retaliate. He subsequently floods Atlantic City with cheap but high quality whiskey, labeling Remus's whiskey as useless. This coupled with the citywide African-American strike causes a rift between Jimmy and his partners and they begin to quarrel among themselves. Unable to sell their alcohol in Atlantic City anymore, they decides to split up and sell it in their respective towns, which they succeed in doing. Upon their return to Atlantic City, having sold their alcohol, Jimmy has gone missing after his wife has been murdered. They all assume it's Jimmy that killed her but is later corrected by Mickey Doyle whom claims that it was Manny Horwitz that did the deed. Luciano, Lansky and Capone however doesn't bother and declares it as Jimmy's problem, also making it clear to Doyle that if Jimmy comes looking for his cut of the profit, then he should cover it from his share. After having sold their liquor, an operation that almost failed, Luciano and Lansky turns to their mentor Rothstein with a new business proposition of buying heroin from a Chinese man down town. Rothstein is intrigued by the offer and suggest that they start an import operation of legitimate merchandise from China to smuggle it in to the country and is even more pleased when Luciano lies to him by saying that they came to him first with the offer. During the meeting Rothstein also receives a phone call from Nucky asking if he would have any objections to having Manny Horwitz murdered, Rothstein by speaking the question out loud, subtly asks Luciano and Lansky their opinion on the matter, the two men declares that it makes no difference to them. Season 3 Charlie Luciano starts the year of 1923 by visiting Nucky Thompson in Atlantic City to attend his New Years Eve party. At the party Nucky assembles him and his other customers and gives news that he will only sell alcohol to Arnold Rothstein in the future, seeing as he wants to pay a favor to his political connections that is under investigation. During the meeting Luciano also clashes with Gyp Rosetti after he insults Rothstein. Sometime between August 1921 and early January 1923, Luciano has become a partner in Gillian Darmody's brothel "The Artemis Club". He is reluctant to pay for maintenance of the club and before doing so wants to see a return of his initial investment. Charlie stays at the club a few days during the year and at one time tries to sell heroin at the club, Gillian however finds out and declares that she won't tolerate it. Luciano's and Meyer Lansky's heroin business has evolved. Now delivering heroin to different parts of New York with the help of their delivery boy Benny Siegel. But the lucrative business only goes smooth for so long until Joe Masseria finds out about their operation, and is not pleased that they're selling in his territory without paying him a piece of the profit. Lansky thinks they should approach him with an offer so they can set the terms and at the same time look like gentlemen in Masseria's eyes. However, before they can approach him, Masseria sends two of his men to harass their delivery boy, which ends with Meyer shooting one of them. This incident prompts Joe to summon Luciano for a meeting. Lansky, not happy about the latest incident is reluctant to come to terms with Masseria after what he did but eventually agrees and instructs Luciano that he should offer him 2% of the profit and finally settle at 5%. Luciano attends the meeting with Masseria and makes their offer. Masseria is not pleased with the offer after the loss of his man and towards the end of the meeting he demands to get 30% of their profit of the merchandise sold in his territory. Luciano agrees to discuss the demand with his partners. As he is about to leave, Masseria warns him about trusting his Jewish partners. in February, when Gyp has the roads in and out of Tabor Heights controlled, the towns sheriff bought off as well as having succeeded in blocking a number of alcohol shipments. He follows Rothstein to Atlantic City to discuss the problem with Nucky. At first very reluctant to help him, Rothstein decides to get rid of Gyp. They travel to Tabor Heights and pretends to visit him in search of a new supplier. During the meeting they find out that Gyp recides in a nearby motel named The Kinneret Lodge through a paperboy. Following this Luciano and Lansky decides to send Benny to kill Gyp, disguised as a paper boy. Benny ends up killing four people in the motel, though not Gyp himself. This temporarily drives Gyp out of Tabor and the booze trade between Atlantic City and New York is restored for the moment. Luciano's ignorant attitude towards The Artemis Club eventually comes back to haunt him after Gillian has her son Jimmy Darmody declared dead with the help of another mans body that she claims to be her son. This enables her to take a loan so she can maintain her club and also makes it possible for her to buy Luciano out of his partnership in the club. During their last confrontation about the matter, Gillian becomes enraged with him when he learns that he's having dinner with Nucky later that night. This combined with Nucky's visit to her club earlier to offer his condolences about the deceased Jimmy, prompts her to relay this piece of information to Gyp, whom arranges for a bomb to be planted at Babettes Supper Club, meant to kill Nucky, Rothstein and Luciano. The bomb goes off while the three men discusses a recent offer that Charlie has received for heroin but fails to kill any of them, since the three men doesn't get close enough to the club to die from the explosion. Shortly after the attempt on their life, Nucky arranges a meeting with a number of crime lords from New York, including Luciano, to discuss his current war with Gyp. He asks the attendees to help him defeate his enemies, in exchange for the formation of a coaltion among them as well as going in to business with all them again. Everyone however turns him down, thinking that doing business with Nucky is more trouble then it's worth. With the war shaping up between Nucky and Masseria, Luciano and Lansky see no point in waiting for it to end and goes to Rothstein with a proposition. It turns out that they have a deal waiting for 50 pounds of heroin, which they need to pay $100.000 for. Rothstein however makes it clear to them that he won't venture into any new deals until the war is over and one of the combatants is defeated. Without the financial backing of Rothstein, they instead pay a visit to Masseria with the same deal. He is at first reluctant to back them, but in the end agrees when they provide him with information that Nucky will try to have him killed. With the war having reached it's peak and Masseria having made his move against Atlantic City to take down Nucky, Luciano is desperate to move their merchandise and make a profit of it. He sets up a meeting with two men from Buffalo, claiming to belong to Stefano Magaddino's gang (Sam Moceri and Gaetano Caiozzo). Charlie meets with them and arranges for them to pay him $15.000 for 5 pounds of heroin. Later that night Luciano and Lansky meet to discuss the deal. Lansky doesn't want to proceed with it, since they need to be very careful who other people see them do business with. He therefore asks Luciano to let this deal go and wait for a better opportunity. He agrees to let it go, but in the end still goes behind Lansky's back and proceeds with his plan of selling it to Buffalo. A new meeting is set up where the cash and merchandise will be delivered to each party. The meeting however goes awry when it turns out that the men pretending to be members of Magaddino's gang is in fact police officers. The officers presses him for information about his partners, financiers and providers but Charlie doesn't give anything up. When the officers however threaten to have him killed, he caves and give them information where they could find 50 pounds of heroin that isn't his own, lying to them in the process. He is subsequently released. Wthout any heroin to sell and the need to pay Masseria for his financial backing, Luciano and Meyer head to Rothstein ones again to ask for money. Luciano while waiting outside Rothstein's office assures Meyer that he made a mistake and that he will cover it from his own pocket. However things soon comes to light for them both as it is revealed that the cops that arrested Luciano was in fact working on behalf of Rothstein and they only arrested him so he could have the heroin for himself, not pleased with the fact that they went to Masseria behind his back. The heroin is latter used by Rothstein in a deal with Masseria to pull all of his men away from Atlantic City. Luciano becomes extremely enraged by Rothstein's treatment of him and it results in Charlie leaving Rothstein's service. Relationships *Arnold Rothstein: Mentor and former employer (deceased) *Meyer Lansky: Business partner and friend *Benjamin Siegel: Partner in crime and friend * Pinky Rabinowitz: Employee * Johnny Torrio: Adviser *Joe Masseria: Criminal superior, Boss of New York, employer (deceased) * Salvatore Maranzano: new Boss of New York, employer (deceased) *Gillian Darmody: Former lover *Jimmy Darmody: Bootlegging partner (deceased) *Mickey Doyle: Bootlegging partner, murder victim (deceased) *Al Capone: Bootlegging partner *Richard Harrow: Bootlegging associate (deceased) *Nucky Thompson: Bootlegging associate (deceased) *Waxey Gordon: Bootlegging associate *Chalky White: Bootlegging associate (deceased) *Bill McCoy: Bootlegging associate *Herman Kaufman: Bootlegging associate (deceased) *Owen Sleater: Bootlegging associate (deceased) *Leo D'Alessio: Criminal Associate (deceased) *Ignacious D'Alessio: Criminal Associate (deceased) *Matteo D'Alessio: Criminal Associate (deceased) *Lucien D'Alessio: Criminal Associate (deceased) *Pius D'Alessio: Criminal Associate (deceased) Memorable Quotes *''"Could you fix us up or no? We'll take alls we can get up to two thousand crates a month- for starters." ("Boardwalk Empire") *"You sent a message, alright...that you're idiots." ("The Emerald City") *"He didn't look from behind either from what Frankie Yale tell me." (referring to Big Jim Colosimo) ("A Return to Normalcy") *"Go fry a fucking egg, Farmer John."'' ("21") *"Run these numbers." *''"Your mother served pork chops? How the fuck do I know what happened last night?" (Everything Connects)'' *"I WORKED FOR THAT!" I busted my ass for that! It was my idea! My deal! ("Margate Sands") *"Shut the fuck up for once." ("Friendless Child") *This is business. And i want all of yours. ("Friendless Child") *You set me up. Who the fuck do you think you are? ("Margate Sands") *You know who i am? ("Friendless Child") *I'm out in the fucking world! HUH?! ("Margate Sands") *It was my idea! My deal! ("Margate Sands") *I got no beef with you ("Friendless Child") *What about him? (Friendless Child) *The future is ours ("Eldorado") *Make my friend happy ("Friendless Child") *Enough *We don't even know what Neil Howard Sloan-Jacob looks like Appearances External links *Lucky Luciano on The Godfather Wiki. Category:Characters Category:Gamblers Category:Gangsters Category:Historical figures Category:Italian people Category:Main Characters Category:Memorable Quotes Category:New York City Category:Season 1 Category:Season 2 Category:Season 3 Category:Antagonists